uasions of Squire Lee, had consented to let
the widow keep the house, and pay for it as she could.

John Bright had been dead four years at the time we introduce Bobby to
the reader. Mrs. Bright had paid another hundred dollars towards the
house, with the interest; so there was now but one hundred due. Bobby
had learned to "close," and helped his mother a great deal; but the
confinement and the stooping posture did not agree with his health,
and his mother was obliged to dispense with his assistance. But the
devoted little fellow found a great many ways of helping her. He was
now thirteen, and was as handy about the house as a girl. When he was
not better occupied, he would often go to the river and catch a mess
of fish, which was so much clear gain.

The winter which had just passed had brought a great deal of sickness
to the little black house. The children all had the measles, and two
of them the scarlet fever, so that Mrs. Bright could not work
much. Her affairs were not in a very prosperous condition when the
spring opened; but the future was bright, and the widow, trusting in
Providence, believed that all would end well.

One thing troubled her. She had not been able to save anything for
Mr. Hardhand. She could only pay her interest; but she hoped by the
first of July to give him twenty-five dollars of the principal. But
the first of July came, and she had only five dollars of the sum she
had partly promised her creditor. She could not so easily recover from
the disasters of the hard winter, and she had but just paid off the
little debts she had contracted. She was nervous and uneasy as the day
approached. Mr. Hardhand always abused her when she told him she could
not pay him, and she dreaded his coming.

It was the first of July on which Bobby caught those pouts, caught the
horse, and on which Tom Spicer had "caught a Tartar."

Bobby hastened home, as we said at the conclusion of the last
chapter. He was as happy as a lord. He had fish enough in his basket
for dinner, and for breakfast the next morning, and money enough in
his pocket to make his mother as happy as a queen, if queens are
always happy.

The widow Bright, though she had worried and fretted night and day
about the money which was to be paid to Mr. Hardhand on the first of
July, had not told her son anything about it. It would only make him
unhappy, she reasoned, and it was needless to make the dear boy
miserable for nothing; so Bobby ran home